Discussion

My (friend's) Cassoulet Recipe

Ok Harters, here you go - this is made of delicious, and produces a really nice thick, creamy sauce, perfect for dipping some crusty bread in. There's a lot of meat in this (sometimes it feels like too much!), but mix it up as you feel necessary. It's supposed to be a peasant dish where you bung in what you have, and this isn't a "traditional" recipe.

Ingredients:celery (I use about 4-5 sticksCarrots (say 3)big onionfresh thyme4 chicken/duck legs4-6 toulouse sausages (or whatever else you want, herby ones are nice)100g pancetta (or again whatever you have)about a cup of nice white wine, but not necessarya pint of stock, chicken or veg4+ cans of beans, doesn't really matter what, but it's nice to mix them up. Flageolet go really well, and last time I also used borlotti, butter beans and canellinioil to cook. I use olive oil, but I know that's weird to some.A big oven/hob-proof dish, I think mine is 2.3 quarts

Method:first you need to brown the meat, so chicken legs first. Then set them aside on a plate and brown the sausages and pancetta.Remove the rest of the meat (put it with the chicken)Add the onion, diced, to the pan, and soften it.Then throw in all the celery and carrot, and pour the wine on, and let it cook away a little.Add in the stock, and then throw everything else in the pot in a big mix, chicken legs last.Now you should be able to sit the chicken legs on top of everything else, with their skin unsubmerged.

Once it's nice and hot, stick it in the oven for 2 hours with the lid on, about gas mark 5, and at the end, remove the lid and crisp up the chicken, about 20 minutes.

Then serve in a bowl! Yum! Winter food! Oh, and also, it shouldn't need any seasoning, so don't be tempted to add salt.